Travel agents must start selling the full holiday experience to a new generation of holidaymakers looking for more than just fly and flop.
Steven Esom, non-executive chairman of leading agency consortium Advantage Travel Partnership, told this week’s ITT conference in Sorrento, Italy, that customer demands are driving the most fundamental change in the industry.
And he said companies are having to adapt by put designing the experience over designing the product and curating to cater for all their customers’ needs.
“In order for us to get fit for the future we have to invest in IT and customer insight. We are doing this at record levels and it will only increase.
“The most fundamental change in our industry will be the traveller and our customers. We believe if we can invest in a timely manner we can build competitive advantage for our members.
“Today we need to think in a very different way, more joined up with our business partners to serve our consumers better. You cannot just sell a holiday, car hire or hotel and hand the responsibility over to another entity.
“To me it’s important how we join up all elements of a customer’s holiday and build them a seamless experience.”
Esom, who has previously oversaw a re-fresh of the Waitrose brand and is an investor in online supermarket Ocado, said the key trend in consumer products which is coming over from the US is curation.
“It’s understanding the motivation for consumers making that purchase from you. What lies behind it? And it’s taking that understanding and working out how you design an experience that suits them and anticipates what they really want.
“This trend grew firstly with the baby boomers but the millennials are picking it up. It changes the perspective of brand and customer service. We have to be wary of thinking that the future looks like the past.”
Esom said successfully adapting to changing customer demands will drive loyalty and lifetime value, but he warned: “I fear we are not going to maximise that unless we rethink how we run our businesses.
“How good are we at standing in the shoes of our customers and critically evaluating what we do? The consumer is changing, preferring experiences over pure products. But we could miss out. I believe we are still in a very traditional mindset.”
Esom said the next generation of millennial holidaymakers (those who have grown up in the internet age) are more knowledgeable and experienced than their parents and “understand what good looks like for them”.
He said their expectations are being set by brands like Apple, Uber, Hollister and Ocado, and they see the arrival at their destination as being just the start of the experience.
Agents cam make the difference by focusing on the small things that improve the overall experience and make it as painless as possible, not necessarily major technological advances, added Esom.
“At Advantage we are thinking through how these changes will help us change our business model in the future,” he said.
“We need to offer a great experience to our customers and also sell them a high quality product. That’s where curation comes together. Product excellence and product experience really, really, matter.”
Esom added too many customers today are just being offered value and convenience. “You do not want to be commoditised and low margin,” he said.
“A low margin industry should not be an excuse for providing a clunky experience. Sometimes travel feels like ‘fly and forget’, but we are working hard to make sure it’s not.”
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